Chapter Ten

“I thought we were going for a drink.” Mia scowled from the passenger seat as Reed maneuvered his Camaro into the high school parking lot shortly after she’d dropped off the remaining food at the diner and then her car at home.

“We are.” Except, when he’d invited her out, he’d left out the stop he had to make first. A stop that would have had her running from Rebel Field as fast as her cute little ballet flats would have carried her. “But I need to do this first.”

“What is this exactly?” Mia bit her lip as she surveyed the well-lit entrance of the building they’d spent all of their junior high and high school years. Kids in both casual and formal attire came and went, all with big, dopey smiles on their faces.

“I promised the guys I’d stop into the dance to see them all spiffed up,” he explained, putting the car in park and killing the engine. “It’ll only take a few minutes. Come on in with me.”

“Oh, no.” Mia held up her hands and pressed her back to the door as she tried to put space between them. Like, if she got too close, he might drag her across the console and haul her out his side of the car. “Not happening. I’ll just wait here.”

Locking his eyes on hers, he shook his head and smiled, nice and slow and maybe a little flirty. “Please, M? I’ll look like a schmuck if I go in there without a date.”

“A date?” Mia’s bark of laughter reeked of both amusement and defense. He also noticed that her fingers tightened around her purse and the prettiest shade of pink tinged her cheeks. She looked just like the shy, yearning teenage girl he remembered, only more grown up. Sexier. Curvier. And, as he knew firsthand, not as innocent as she appeared.

“I’m a role model to these guys. I have to show ‘em how it’s done.”

She shot him a pointed, ‘you are so full of shit’ glare. “You’re showing them how to be a man whore?”

“Ouch.” He pressed a hand to his chest and faked a wince. “You wound me, M. And who told you that I’m a man whore? Have you been talking to Ally?”

“Of course, I have. There’s also the fact that you and I—” Suddenly, Mia snapped her mouth shut and the pink in her cheeks turned raspberry red.

“You and I what?” he goaded, though he was pretty sure he already knew. Her adorable blush gave her away.

“Let’s just go inside.” With a huff, she pushed open the door and hurried across the street to the high school with Reed trailing behind.

“Hold up. We have to make this look good,” he called after her, still smirking.

Her steps faltered a bit and she spun around to face him, mouth agape. “You’re serious?”

“Yup,” he lied. Yes, he’d promised his players he’d stop by to see them get their swagger on, but by no means were they expecting him to bring a date. Hell, he tried to keep his personal life as far away from the field as possible, because, as Mia had so kindly pointed out, his reputation with women wasn’t exactly role model material. Something he’d become painfully aware of when he’d unknowingly slept with Candy, a senior player’s older sister, last fall. “Just let me hold your hand,” he finally offered Mia as explanation. “That should do the trick.”

She blinked her gorgeous eyes up at him as the cool evening breeze caused a few strands of her dark hair to whisper across her face. “You conned me.”

“Not entirely. I want to take you out for that drink more than I want to be here, but I made a commitment. You’re just helping me fulfill it.”

“You owe me.”

“That’s a debt I’ll happily repay.”

* * *

The stairs leading up to the mezzanine above the gym were lit with a long arbor of twinkling white lights. Trailing behind Reed—with her fingers tangled in his—felt bittersweet in a ‘what might have been’ sort of way.

Mia had only gone to one Homecoming dance, which ended with her crying in the bathroom after hearing a couple of older boys laughing about the lights reflecting off of her braces. At least it drew attention to her face instead of the tits she didn’t have, they’d said. So, going to another dance at all, let alone one with Reed, had only existed in her fantasies, where he’d held her hand like he did now and at the end of the night, he’d confessed his undying love.

She smiled to herself as they reached the top of the stairs where the lights multiplied by hundreds, maybe thousands, stretched from the center of the dance floor out toward the far sides of the big, open room. Mixed in were wispy, shimmering ribbons of gossamer in shades of black, silver, and Rebel orange, perfectly matching the table decor and the majority of the attire, too.

“Wow,” Mia murmured. “This is gorgeous.”

“Yup. Reminds me of our senior Homecoming dance.”

From what Mia could remember of the pictures, yes, though she had no firsthand knowledge. She’d been too busy at the diner to help decorate after school and, without a date, she’d been too humiliated to go to the actual event by herself.

Pathetic. God, she’d taken everything so personally back then. She’d let it consume her when she could have been doing so much more with her time.

“If only you were wearing a dress.”

Huh? She frowned up at Reed. “What was that?”

“I wish you were in a dress instead of leggings. So when we dance in a few minutes, it’d feel real.”

Her heart began to hammer in her chest and all she could do was blink.

“You never came to any of our senior dances,” he reminded her in a soft, hushed tone that matched the gentle way his fingers fluttered against the side of her face. “I never got to dance with you.”

When he tucked her hair behind her ear and let his fingertips whisper down her neck, she closed her eyes and unsuccessfully bit back a shudder.

“We’ve danced before,” she said to him quietly.

“I mean for real. Not one where I stomp all over your feet and ruin your pedicure.”

Despite the butterflies whirling in her belly, she smiled. “You weren’t that bad.”

“Yes, I was, but your lessons made me better.”

And then he’d taken his newfound skills and put them to use with other girls. Girls Mia had been so damn envious of.

“What do you say?” He tipped his head toward the dance floor as a slow country song began to hum through the sound system. “I promise I won’t step on your toes this time.”

“You sure?” she teased for the sole purpose of buying herself time. It was one thing to be his fake date and hold his hand for show but it was another to move in close to him. To feel his hard body beneath her palms...and to remember all too clearly what those muscles and that skin looked like bare.

“I’m positive. Come on.”

With a sigh, she let him lead her to the middle of the crowded dance floor, where at least a half-dozen boys greeted him with waggling eyebrows or encouraging slaps on the back. “Go, Coach!” one of them had hooted while another sang bow-chicka-wow-wow.

Reed rolled his eyes and slid both of his arms around her waist, pulling her close. “Morons.”

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” she murmured, pressing her face into his chest to hide. Bad move though, because he smelled ah-mazing.

“Just close your eyes...” When he dipped his head and his lips brushed against the shell of her ear, she bit back a moan. “And pretend it’s your night. Pretend you’re wearing the dress of your dreams and I’m the guy you’d always hoped would ask you to dance.”

The first part was silly and the second part...well, that didn’t actually require any imagination. In high school, Reed had been the only boy who’d made her heart flutter.

Right now, he was doing a pretty good job, too, though she was far from the fool-hearted girl who could be wooed with a simple dance and a few sweet caresses.

“Reed...” She slid her hands from around his neck and rested them gently against his chest. “As thoughtful as this is, you know you can’t change the past, right?”

“I do.” His voice was as soft as the lips he pressed to her forehead. “But I still want to try.”

“Why?”

“Because I care about you, M. Always have, but back then, I was too stupid and selfish to show you what you really meant to me.”

God, this man. His words and the tender way he held her burned straight through her chest, making her heart ache all over again. How silly was that? How foolish? This was Reed Fletcher, River Bend’s biggest player. His interpretation of caring about someone usually required the loss of clothing as she’d learned last winter when he’d cared about her several times over.

“Are you trying to get me naked again?”

“Who, me?” His dark eyes went wide in feigned exasperation and she laughed, poking a finger into the hard wall of his chest.

“I know you too well, remember?”

He chuckled softly and gathered her close again, one hand weaving into the hair at the back of her head. “Ah, Mia, you know you’ve always been different for me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I damn sure liked having you naked and beneath me, but that’s not the only thing I like about you.”

If that confession was supposed to make her feel better, it didn’t. As a kid, she would’ve given anything to hear those words, but now...now she didn’t know what she wanted. Her life was too complicated to even think about what might come next.

“Your hip is vibrating against my thigh,” he said into her hair and she groaned.

“Pretend you don’t feel it.”

“No can do. I’m half hard from just holding you and that’s not helping.” He slipped the hand he held at her back into the front pocket of her cardigan and pulled out her phone. The instantaneous tension in his jaw when he read the caller ID told her who it was before he even said the name. “Ben.”

Shit. Snatching the cell from his grasp, she declined the call, tucked it away, and wrapped her arms around his neck again. “We’re not done with our dance.”

“Are you still with him?” Reed’s feet stopped moving and guilt roiled in her stomach.

“Not anymore.”

“But you went back to him, didn’t you?”

She bit her bottom lip and whispered, “Yes.”

“Damn it, Mia.” His hands fisted against her lower back. “That guy’s a prick. He doesn’t deserve you.”

“That’s why I left.”

“You’ve said that before.”

“For real this time, I swear.” Why it was so important he believed her, she didn’t know. It just...was. “I don’t know if I’m going back to Omaha, Reed. At least not permanently.”

His eyes widened. “You’re staying in River Bend?”

“Maybe.” She lifted a shoulder. “If Mom and Dad need me to stay, I’ll do it. I spent enough time being selfish.”

“But you hate it here.” The crease in his brow deepened.

“I don’t hate it. I just need to put the past behind me. I let myself dwell on the shitty things that happened for too long. Coming back now...well, I realize how ridiculous I’ve been. People change. They grow up.” All of the effort she’d put into avoiding River Bend had been for nothing. And it had cost her. She’d lost so much precious time with her parents and them her. She couldn’t rob them of any more.

“Wow.” Reed’s big hands curled around her jaw, tipping her face up to his. “When did you have that revelation?”

“When I started talking to Ally again.” The woman was nothing like she remembered, and the truth had practically slapped Mia in the face. “I assumed she’d still be awful to me, but she’s actually been pretty sweet. Turns out that getting to know people rather than jumping to conclusions is some pretty eye-opening stuff.”

He smirked for a moment, then winked. “You don’t say.”

“Yep.” She chewed on her lip again as heat filled her cheeks. “Look, I’m pretty embarrassed about how I handled a lot of this. About how much time I wasted staying away for apparently no reason at all. If you could, I don’t know, maybe not rub it in, I’d really appreciate it.”

“You’re gorgeous when you blush, anyone ever tell you that?”

Oh, he was good when he wanted to be. “I feel so stupid,” she confessed. “I’m thirty-one and—”

“Shh. Don’t beat yourself up, M. You’ve done enough of that to last a lifetime.” His thumbs rubbed gently over her cheekbones and the light tickle of his skin on hers sent shivers zipping down her spine. “Besides, this realization of yours doesn’t mean that you have to blindly forgive and forget. Some people will always be assholes.” 

People like Ben Montgomery, especially.

“Tell me I’m not one of those people.”

“Huh?” She frowned up at him, momentarily distracted by the country tune blending into an old school Backstreet Boys ballad. A song she used to listen on repeat, lying in bed, daydreaming about the very man who held her close tonight. 

“Tell me I’ve made it out of the asshole category.” Reed’s dark gaze locked on hers and, for a moment, he looked so childish. So desperate for approval.

“You’re doing all right,” she teased, tugging on his earlobe.

“That’s it? Just all right?”

“Shut up and let me enjoy this song.”

* * *

“Um, your hip is vibrating against mine now.”

Reed shot Mia a mischievous smile. “Yeah? You want to snuggle closer?”

She rolled her eyes but remained tucked under his arm with hers slung across his lower back while he rehashed the big game with the high school principal.

Unlike him earlier, she resisted the urge to pull his phone from his pocket and snoop. It was Friday night, after all, and he was currently the man of the hour. She could only imagine who might want to help him celebrate tonight.

“Well, good game, Coach.” The principal clapped Reed on the shoulder and angled his head toward a handsy couple about to round third base on the outskirts of the dance floor. “Duty calls.”

“Have fun with that.” Reed chuckled and dipped to press a quick kiss to Mia’s temple as the man ambled away. “Had enough dancing, date of mine?”

No, but she wasn’t about to confess just how much she’d enjoyed this trip down memory lane. More to point, how right Reed had been about her needing it.

“I think so,” she said instead. “I do believe you owe me a drink.”

His eyes sparkled as he grinned down at her. “You’re not sick of me yet?”

“Getting there, but not quite yet,” she teased, and he pinched her shoulder as payback. “Ouch!”

“Reed?”

He turned her in a quick circle at the sound of a sweet, feminine voice behind them. A petite brunette in a knee-length black dress. Despite her warm smile, Reed went still. His posture straightened, too, and Mia’s curiosity piqued.

“Hey,” the pretty woman said, her honey eyes glittering as she looked back and forth between them. “I didn’t expect to see you here tonight,” she said to Reed.

“Uh, yeah,” he stammered. “I came to see the guys spiffed up and to take Mia here for a twirl around the dance floor.” Knuckling his nose, he gestured with his free hand between the two of them. “Mia, this is Josh’s wife, Carissa. Carissa, Mia Carderas, Jose and Stella’s daughter.”

Ahh. Well, that explained the stiff spine and sudden tension.

“I’ve heard so much about you,” Mia said kindly, offering the pixie of a woman her hand. “From Ally, of course. She showed me pictures of your new baby. She’s gorgeous, by the way, with all of that dark hair.”

Every bit of Carissa pretty’s face smiled at the mention of her newborn daughter. Joselyn, if Mia remembered correctly.

“Oh, thank you. She’s a spitting image of her father, but don’t tell Josh I said that. Lord knows that man has a big enough ego as it is.”

Reed grunted, and Mia leaned a little further into his side, laughing.

“So, where is he tonight?” Reed glanced around. “He didn’t want to come and help you keep these brats in line?”

“Nah, he’s at home with our brat. First time doing Daddy duty by himself.”

Mia smiled. “I would love to be a fly on the wall in your house tonight. I bet they’re adorable together.”

“He’s got her wrapped around his little finger, that’s for sure.”

Reed made another unimpressed, macho sound and Mia elbowed him in the ribs. “You just wait, big guy. Your day will come and I promise you won’t be any different.”

His dark eyes held hers, a mix of amusement and arrogance shiny in their depths. “Somehow, I doubt that, but anyway...” He glanced back to Carissa. “We were on our way out. Tell Josh I said hi. And remind him that he still owes me a beer for that Broncos win last Sunday.”

Carissa rolled her eyes, then smiled at Mia. “It was so nice to meet you. I’ve been thinking about your dad nonstop. Please tell him I wish him a speedy recovery.”

“I will. Thank you.”

The women exchanged quick hugs and, as Carissa went on her way, Reed blew out a slow breath, rubbing a hand around the back of his neck.

Mia said nothing. Instead, she let Reed have the moment to process whatever it was he was trying to work out. Envy? Regret? Mia couldn’t say for sure because none of them were emotions she’d ever seen on him before. He’d always come off as so untouchable in high school and what she knew of him now that they’d reconnected... Well, he hadn’t changed much.

Or maybe he’d changed a heck of a lot more than he’d let anyone see.

Until now.

* * *

“You loved her.”

Reed’s hands tightened around the steering wheel at Mia’s quiet observation. “Yeah.” He swallowed. “I did.”

“But you let her go.”

Of course, he had. He wasn’t ready for the next level of commitment and her heart belonged to someone else. “She was in love with Josh.”

Mia’s small hand curled around his forearm as he drove to McCauley’s Pub. “That had to have been hard.”

“Not really. I knew I wasn’t the guy for her and, in the end, everything worked out like it was supposed to.”  

He couldn’t see her face, but he felt her eyes on him in the dark. Watching carefully. Looking for the crack that must exist somewhere.

But she wouldn’t find it.

Yes, he’d been hurt, knowing that Josh had held back as long as he did, hiding the truth about his relationship with Carissa. But more than that, Reed had felt guilty. He’d gotten between two people who, in hindsight, were so obviously meant for one another. He felt like a fool for not realizing that sooner and for his role in keeping Josh and Carissa apart when they should’ve been together.

“You’ll find your girl someday, Reed. I know tough guys like you don’t like to admit that you hate being alone, but I saw the way you looked at her tonight.” Mia’s voice was gentle again. Soothing. And he felt it like a sweet caress all the way down to his bones.

“I don’t want Carissa.” Just saying the words made him feel like a prick all over again, even though they were true.

“Maybe not, but you want what she represents. Something stable and real.”

Damn straight he did, but what he’d do about it, he didn’t know.

What he did know was that spending time with Mia... It felt more real than anything ever had.